Both venous and arterial multi-lumen catheters have been used for various procedures by the medical profession. Also, intra-aortic balloons have been used as pump counterpulsation as an accepted modality for providing diagnostic augmentation and afterload reduction in patients requiring temporary cardiac support.
The multi-lumen catheters, whether venous or arterial, all share the common problem of maintaining proper position within the respective vein or artery. Also, these multi-lumen catheters share the same limitations of being useful only for infusion or diagnostic purposes.